Fourth Time's the Charm
by Cara245
Summary: In my last story, "Finding myself one piece at a time," Ranger mentions that Lester is an expert on Vegas weddings because he's been married there three times – to the same woman. Ranger and Stephanie already have their HEA, so here is Les'. Lester and OC.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The characters and their world belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm just playing with them for fun and all mistakes are my own.

AN: In my last story, "Finding myself one piece at a time," Ranger mentions that Lester is an expert on Vegas weddings because he's been married there three times – to the same woman. A few people have asked for Lester's story, so here 'tis. I was a little unkind to Helen Plum in the first part, but neither she nor Morelli are harmed in this story. Steph and Ranger have their HEA, so in the tradition of all annoyingly happy couples, they want Lester to have his HEA.

Oh, and shout out to Vulcan Rider, who guessed what Ranger said to Helen when they were alone in the kitchen in installment 11 of "Finding myself one piece at a time." I imagined that Ranger's words to Mrs. Plum went something like this: "I love Stephanie, and you're wrong about one thing – I fully intend to marry her when and if she's ever ready. You're her mother and she loves you, but hear me now – if you keep browbeating and speaking to her like you did tonight, I won't hesitate to do everything I can to protect her, even if that means moving with her to Miami and losing your number."

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><p>Chapter 1: What happens in Vegas...<p>

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><p>Lester's POV<p>

I stepped out into the main terminal of the Las Vegas McCarran airport and stopped to get my bearings. Maybe I was momentarily distracted by the group of nuns that had just hit the jackpot ten feet to my left, but it took me several seconds to realize that the loud ringing I was hearing was my phone and not the slot machines that lined the concourse.

I checked the display and bit back a curse. _Dios_, if I didn't like Beautiful so much, I would've told my cousin where to shove his 'special assignment.' Good God, how did Stephanie put up with this? I'd already talked to Helen Plum three times before leaving New Jersey and I'd just seen where she'd left a couple of voicemails while we were in the air.

The nuns were still partying, so I hit accept and started toward the airport exit. "Ms. Plum, what can I do for you?" I asked in my best soothing voice – the one I use for difficult clients and hookups who want to stick around past breakfast.

"You have to talk some sense into my daughter!" I winced and held the phone away from my ear as the not so dulcet tones of Helen Plum's voice came pouring out of the handset. _Jesus_, did she have to be so shrill? The woman could break glass with that voice.

"Mrs. Plum…" I tried to cut her off, but she was already on a roll.

"Who gets married in Las Vegas, anyway? Mobsters and reality show bimbos, that's who!" She exclaimed, answering her own question.

I pulled the phone further away from my ear and one of my travelling companions snickered. I shot a glare at Jorgenson and he immediately sobered. _That's right, asshole. Keep laughing and I'll put you on the phone_.

When she began to rant that the Plums and Mazurs always got married at Sacred Heart, I'd had enough. "Stop," I growled in a voice I usually reserve for Vinnie Plum and other criminals. "Stephanie is an adult and you have exactly two choices. You can smile and watch your daughter get married over the video link we are setting up for you, or you can continue to harp about how Stephanie's cousin didn't get married in Las Vegas and keep on alienating your daughter. What you can't do is stop this wedding." I checked my watch discreetly. It was 1600 hours local time, and if everything had gone as scheduled, Ric and Stephanie should be on their way back from the Marriage License Bureau by now. I'd even filled out the forms myself for them online, so they shouldn't have had to wait.

The line was silent, except for the sound of her sucking in a breath. "I can't believe you said that!" She exclaimed.

Yeah, and I wanted to say a hell of a lot more, but my mother had taught me better. I braced myself for another tirade, but she surprised me with her next words.

"He's actually going to move her away from me, like he said, isn't he?" She asked, suddenly sounding very small and lost. "To Florida, I mean."

I almost dropped the phone as the pieces to a puzzle that had been stumping me for the last few months fell into place. So that's how _mi primo_ had gotten Mama Plum to lay off of Beautiful. It was pure genius, and I had no doubt he'd do his best to convince Steph to move to Miami if Helen continued to push them, either. I shook my head ruefully at that thought, since I had no doubt my cousin could be very persuasive when he wanted to.

At that moment, I felt just a little bit sorry for Helen, which is the only explanation for why my next words slipped out. "They have no plans to leave the Trenton area," I told her. In fact, Ric had had Ella scouring the real estate listings for the last couple of weeks, but there was no way I was going to tell Steph's mother that. "But you and I both know plans can change with the right motivation," I warned her.

"I know he said he intended to marry her, but did they really have to sneak around like this?" She asked plaintively.

I signaled for Hector to hold the cab for a second. It was past time to shut down this conversation, but I didn't want to do this with him and Jorgenson listening in. "They're not sneaking around Mrs. Plum." When she didn't answer immediately, I sighed. "Seriously, I have a feeling this was a spur of the moment decision. Was Stephanie engaged the last time you saw her?" Stephanie's annual birthday dinner and guilt-fest at the Plums had been the night before, and I knew for a fact that my cousin hadn't proposed until this morning.

"Well, Stephanie has always been impulsive…."

I hid a snort. True, but I wasn't going to admit it to the woman who'd more than likely driven Beautiful to elope in the first place. "Ramon should be there any minute to set up the link, if you still want to watch your daughter get married."

I hung up shortly after and piled into the cab behind Hector and Hal. "Tell me again why I got wedding and Helen Plum duty?"

"Because _el jefe _had me block the Plum's number from _Estephania's _phone for today," Hector said with a smirk. "And you got wedding duty because you're so good at them. How many times you been married here? Four, five?"

It was three, but I wasn't going to tell him that. Instead, I just flipped him off and checked my text messages. I had two from clients and one from an old buddy of mine who's an assistant manager at the Bellagio. They'd had to scramble to find an Elvis impersonator at the last minute, but since I'd promised him a hefty bonus, everything was set for Steph and Ric's wedding. I shot back a quick reply to thank him and arranged to meet up in the casino later, after his shift. No one knows how to party like Raphael Soto, and I had a feeling I'd be ready for a little distraction after the happy event.

Speaking of letting loose… I checked the time on my phone as we pulled up to the Bellagio. It was 1645 hours, and the wedding wasn't until 1730; plenty of time for a drink.

A couple of hours later, I let myself out Ric and Stephanie's suite. It had been a beautiful wedding, and I'm not just talking about how the lake and fountain sparkled in the distance, or how Elvis' jumpsuit glowed in the setting sun. Or even how Helen Plum had just kept her mouth shut and smiled through the post-wedding congratulations. What was really beautiful was how Ric and Steph looked at each other as they said 'I do' – like the other person was their whole world. I'd known, academically, that they loved each other, but after tonight, I had a feeling that this was the real, forever, with a capital 'L' kind of love.

As happy as it made me that my cousin had found his match, another part of me was a little sad as I remembered other wedding days and a lot of missed opportunities. _Well, that was all in the past_, I mused as I so thoughtfully placed the 'Do Not Disturb' sign over their door knob. And it wouldn't do to dwell on what could've been when the night was still young and the craps tables were calling my name.

But, the fates had to flip me the finger just then. I turned the corner to head to my own suite, and ran right into the part of my past I'd like to forget the most. I grabbed the woman just before she hit the floor and found myself looking down into a set of deep brown eyes I'd only seen in my dreams, lately.

"You!" She spat as we righted ourselves. "How dare you show your face?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked at the same time, as I hungrily took in all the details of her appearance – heart shaped face, smooth tan skin, and a rockin' body that even her shapeless polo shirt and khakis couldn't hide. Mariela Sanchez and I hadn't seen each other for a couple of years, but she was still as beautiful as ever.

"I work here now," she told me as she gestured toward her name tag that read 'Security Officer.' "What I want to know is why you're in my town?"

"Jesus," I muttered under my breath. "It's not like you got custody of Vegas in the divorce." When she just glared at me, I raked my hands through my hair. "I'm sorry Mari, but I thought you were still at Caesar's."

Her lips twitched slightly in an unwilling smile, but she wasn't giving an inch. "That still doesn't explain why you're here."

I smiled slightly. She was still as feisty as ever. I wanted to kiss and bite at that stubborn lower lip, but instead I just shrugged. "My cousin just got married downstairs."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Ric got married? I'd love to meet the woman who managed that – I always figured he'd never let anyone catch him!"

There was a snort of laughter behind us, and we both turned to find a curly-haired brunette smiling at us. "If you ask him, he'd say it was the other way around, so please don't burst his bubble," Steph said as she extended her hand. "Stephanie Plum – uh, I guess it's Mañoso, now," she said with a particularly charming grin.

I didn't like the look of speculation in Beautiful's eyes, so I took over the introductions. "Mari, you've probably already worked out that this is Ric's wife. Steph, this is Mariela Sanchez. She's … an old friend of mine," I finished, lamely.

It was Mari's turn to snort. "That's what you call it?" She shot me a look that promised long, painful retribution, and not in a good, sexy way. "Les may be my ex-husband, but we're definitely not friends."

The look of glee that lit up Steph's features was enough to make me want to run and hide. "Uh, don't you have a honeymoon to start?" I asked as I tried to subtly steer her back toward her room.

The amount of heat that she and Ric had been generating the last couple of hours had already sent Hector scurrying to the casino and Hal back to airport to the catch the red eye back to Newark. I was made of sterner stuff, so I'd stuck around until Ric had threatened to break my legs for me if I'd didn't find somewhere else to be.

Steph rolled her eyes. "Sure, but I wanted to catch you to see if you could join us for breakfast before we flew out tomorrow." She cast her eyes toward Mari. "I'm sure Carlos would love to say hello, and I'd love to get to know you better, so you could join us?" Steph grinned evilly. "We could trade embarrassing Lester stories."

And because my life is seriously fucked, Mari actually agreed to come for brunch in Ric and Steph's suite at 1100 hours the next morning. My attendance was presumed, and I knew that I'd be there, if only for damage control.

L&M~L&M~L&M

The pounding in my head was the first indication that something was up. My second clue was me waking up in my suite with a very familiar cloud of hair tickling my nose. I lay perfectly still until the drum line in my head began to recede and I could focus on running through the events of the last 24 hours. I'd flown into Vegas for Ric and Steph's wedding. Then I'd literally run into my ex in the hall, and spent the rest of the night brooding over a single glass of scotch.

So if I hadn't been drinking, why did I feel like five kinds of crap? I'd gone to bed fairly early and when I couldn't sleep, had hit the gym for a few hours before brunch with the happy couple. And because I'd known better than to avoid Stephanie when she had that look in her eye, is, I'd manned up and shown up at their suite a full ten minutes early for the full Stephanie Plum inquisition.

Mari moaned and stirred slightly in my arms, bringing me back to the present. I vaguely remembered spending a very awkward half hour staring at her from the other side of the breakfast table, but I didn't have the slightest clue as to how we ended up in bed together. Last I checked, Hell was still a blazing inferno. Mari moaned again and then wiggled her pert little bottom against my crotch, making certain parts of me perk up in interest. Sure, most of me was still wondering how I got here, but little Les was telling me to just shut up and enjoy it for a freakin' second.

So that's what I did. I buried my nose into her smooth, silky, dark hair just like I'd done on other mornings and let my mind drift to better days.

"Did you just smell me?" Mari snarled as she began to wiggle out of my hold.

"Jesus! No," I lied as I let her go and flopped onto my back. "I was thinking about the first time we woke up like this."

She chuckled softly. "Yeah. I remember thinking 'Oh, God, I'm a cliché now."

I smiled. "Yeah, good times." The first time I remember meeting Mari was in a hotel room a lot like this, with a pounding head and a brand new wedding ring. It was a story almost as old as Vegas itself. Boy decides to spend the last 48 hours his leave playing a little black jack with his buddies in Sin City, and gets a little drunk. Then boy meets girl, they both get a lot drunker, and end up saying 'I do' at the Graceland Wedding chapel at 3 AM.

I didn't remember repeating that part of the past, but I checked my left hand anyway. "At least we didn't wake up married, this time."

She smacked me on my shoulder. Hard. "Good for you, because I promised myself the next time I got married it'd end in widow-hood."

_Ouch_, and I just don't mean the fact that I could already feel a bruise forming. The pounding in my head was mostly gone, so I gingerly sat up and looked around. "Well, since you're not going to fulfill that particular dream anytime soon, let's work on getting us out of here." There was a note on the nightstand closest to me, so I picked it up and began to read.

Mari sat up and snorted. "Even I can answer that, _pendejo_. We use the door."

I shook my head and handed her the note. "You don't know my friends very well." And because it'd always driven her crazy when I looked over her shoulder, I scooted a little closer and re-read the note Stephanie had so thoughtfully left us.

_Les, you once told me that real friends always look out for you – even if it means doing things that at first glance aren't very nice,_ Steph wrote. I suppressed a snort at that. When I'd told her that, I'd been talking about throwing her around on the mats so she could learn to defend herself. In no way could locking your buddy Lester up in a hotel room with his slightly hostile ex be called an act of friendship. But of course, there was more.

_I could tell last night and this morning that you and Mari have a lot of unfinished business, so we wanted to give you the chance to talk things over. Closure is good, right? There's plenty to eat in the fridge – and it's real food since I stocked it for you. Ranger wanted me to let you know that the room is secure._

Huh. It was more likely we were locked in with no way out, if I knew _mi primo_.

Ric had tacked on a post script: _I'm delaying my honeymoon for this, so you'd better work things out to Steph's satisfaction. Hector is monitoring the room in case there are any problems._

Sure enough, there was a camera mounted over the doorway to the bedroom, so I let my middle finger tell them exactly how I felt about the situation.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: The characters and their world belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm just playing with them for fun and all mistakes are my own.**

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><p>Previously:<p>

_Steph wrote: I could tell last night and this morning that you and Mari have a lot of unfinished business, so we wanted to give you the chance to talk things over. Closure is good, right? There's plenty to eat in the fridge – and it's real food since I stocked it for you. Ranger wanted me to let you know that the room is secure._

Huh. It was more likely we were locked in with no way out, if I knew _mi primo_.

Ric had tacked on a post script: _I'm delaying my honeymoon for this, so you'd better work things out to Steph's satisfaction. Hector is monitoring the room in case there are any problems._

Sure enough, there was a camera just over the doorway to the bedroom, so I let my middle finger tell them exactly how I felt about the situation.

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

We are not talking about our feelings

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><p>Lester's POV<p>

So, my friends decided to stun and drug my ex-wife and I so that they could shut us up in a hotel room until we 'talked it out and found closure'. Neither Mari nor I had ever taken orders very well, so for the first few minutes Mari stalked around the room muttering to herself while she searched for a way out.

I knew _mi primo_ and my co-workers well enough to know that that was an exercise in futility, so I spent the time searching out the monitoring devices Hec had planted. The hidden mics got flushed, but the mini cams mostly got stashed in a drawer, since good wireless cameras don't come cheap.

I got a little more artistic with the camera hidden in the complimentary bowl of fruit that sat on the wet bar, though. If the nosy assholes wanted something to watch, they could just look at a life-size drawing of my middle finger. I didn't flatter myself by thinking that I'd found all of the bugs in the room without the proper equipment, but I'd gotten most of them.

"How long were we out again? It couldn't have been long…"

I checked the clock over the fireplace mantle. "At least a couple of hours." Which was plenty of time to lock us in tight. Ric, Tank, and I had once busted up an entire cartel with less lead time.

"How did they manage to disable the locks?" She snarled as she finally stomped away from the security panel she'd jimmied open with a butter knife. "The electronic locking mechanisms on these doors are some of the best on the market, and it's supposed to be impossible to lock someone in." Mari aimed the knife for the sink in the kitchenette and made it on the first try. "Tamper-proof my sweet ass," she muttered.

I exercised my right to remain silent, since any comment I could've made at that moment would've just gotten me into trouble. Yes, her ass was as sweet as ever, and there hasn't been a lock or security system invented that Hector couldn't circumvent. Add the devious mind of one Stephanie Plum-Mañoso into the mix and we were lucky that we weren't marooned on a desert island in our underwear.

I finished checking for bugs and plopped down on the sofa. "They took the room phone and all our electronics, too," I told her as I reached for the remote, which wasn't there, either. "Son of a bitch," I muttered when I realized that the cable box was gone, too. I got why they took my iPad and the phones, but did they have to take all forms of entertainment? It wasn't like either of us was fuckin' MacGuyver. I am a man of many talents, but the ability to build a cell phone out of the TV remote, an iPod and my electric razor wasn't one of them.

Since my head was still pounding, I got up and raided the room fridge for a bottle of water and downed a couple of the ibuprofens someone had so thoughtfully left on the bar for us. Finally feeling a little more human, I rejoined Mari in the living room.

"They even took my makeup mirror and the flashlight off of my keychain," Mari muttered as she neatly caught the water bottle I tossed her. She grabbed the painkillers from me and finally flopped down into one of the armchairs. "Your friends are seriously _loco_."

"That was probably Stephanie." I shrugged. "My Morse code is rusty, anyway."

"You were funnier from 2500 miles away," she remarked with a scowl. "So if we're stuck in here with no TV and no way out, what are we expected to do?"

"Well, I could think of a couple of things," I jerked my head toward the bedroom. "I probably got rid of all of the cameras in there if you want to test out the bed. Though, on second thought, we never did get around to making that sex tape," I mused, just before I got hit in the head with a throw pillow.

"God, you're such a pig. I'm trying to be serious here," she huffed. "They're your friends, so tell me what they expected to accomplish by knocking us out and tossing us in here?"

"Well, since sex is out, I guess we could do what the note said and talk about our feeeelings," I sang out. She snorted and flung another pillow my way, letting me know exactly what she thought about Steph's plan.

Needless to say, we spent the next hour or so in not-so-comfortable silence. Sitting in a room with Mari glaring at me wasn't how I'd envisioned spending my stay in Las Vegas, but it did give me lots of time to think. And remember. And wish that things could've been different.

The morning after our first quickie Vegas wedding was awkward, but surprisingly friendly. We'd both politely averted our eyes when we got of bed, and since I was raised to be a gentleman, I let her have the first shower while I ordered up the Santos family hangover cure – huevos rancheros and virgin Bloody Marys with extra hot sauce. We'd exchanged contact information before we went our separate ways and the annulment went through less than a month later.

The second time Mari and I met was a couple of years later, when Ric, Tank, and I had decided not to re-enlist and RangeMan was still just an idea in the back of my cousin's mind. Since the three of us were at loose ends, we'd decided to spend our first week as civilians in Vegas.

I'd lost my shirt at the roulette table pretty early on, so I'd decided to look Mari up and see how life was treating her. One drink had led to more drinks, which had somehow led us to the wedding chapel, again. In the years since our first marriage, some wise soul had decided that twenty-four hour wedding chapels and drunks didn't mix. So since the courthouse closed at Midnight, I sort of remember my second wedding. I remember the wedding night, and the two days after that, even better. I won't lie. I love women, and most of the time they like me too, but somehow sex with Mariela Sanchez is just…. More.

But best sex of my life or not, we were still strangers with very different lives. So, at the end of the weekend I'd got on a plane to Newark and she'd gone back to studying for finals. And some judge must've been really drunk because they saw fit to grant us a second annulment.

The third time we met, we actually didn't get married. Ric's lawyers were still trying, unsuccessfully, to straighten out a small legal matter between Ric and the Las Vegas PD, when one of our contacts tracked one Vincent DeMuzio to the high roller's suite at Caesar's Palace. Old Vinnie was worth a cool million to RangeMan, so I'd grabbed my go-bag and hopped a plane to Sin City.

Imagine my surprise when my ex-wife turned out to be the in-house security liaison for the takedown. I'd known that Mari was beautiful, and funny, but the sight of her taking down my skip was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen. Hell, it's still in the top five, and I was married to her for almost a year the third time around.

So, after I'd arranged for Vinnie's overnight accommodations at the County lockup, we'd ordered a little room-service and got… reacquainted. And though I'd left the next morning to escort DeMuzio back to Jersey, I couldn't get Mari out of my mind. In fact, I'd mooned around like a pansy-assed teenager so much that Tank and Bobby threatened to ship me naked to a 'Stan if I didn't snap out of it.

So I'd picked up the phone and called her. Late night calls led to weekend visits, and before I knew it I had a whole shit load of frequent flyer miles and Mariela Sanchez was so deeply embedded under my skin she was a part of me. She still was, if I had to be completely honest.

We were stone cold sober for our third wedding, which coincidentally had taken place overlooking the same fountain _mi primo_ and Steph had just said 'I do' at. The only differences were that the bride had worn red and Ric had been the best man. I'd honestly thought the third time was the charm for me and Mari. Sure, I hadn't been able to spend as much time in Vegas as I would've liked, but things had been great between us…. until they weren't.

"Are we just going to sit here ignoring each other?" Mari finally asked.

"Wouldn't be my first choice." I shrugged. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I certainly don't want to talk about my feeelings." We both laughed at that.

"Well, what do you think about the Yankee's chances in the World Series, then?"

That was the icebreaker we needed, since Mari hated the Yankees more than she'd ever hated me. And after we'd good naturedly insulted each other's teams enough, we caught up on the last couple of years of each other's lives.

"So how's your mom?" I asked as I put together a couple of my special ham and cheese sandwiches from the supplies Steph had somehow crammed into the wet bar's fridge. My secret is adding corn chips for crunch.

"Eh – same old same old." Mari wrinkled her nose. "She's on rehab stint number twelve and husband number five."

"Maybe both will stick this time," I said, though we both knew the odds of a tsunami roaring through the middle of the Nevada desert were probably greater. With Mari's mom treating marriage like a revolving door and my own parents rarely living in the same house when I was growing up, it was no wonder our relationship was as screwed up as it was. We didn't exactly have good role models. And frankly, relationships had always seemed like an alien concept to me; I still didn't have a clue as to what went wrong with us the last time. I said as much while we eating and ended up wearing her beer.

"_Pendejo!"_ She spat out. "You lie and whore around and ask me what went wrong?"

_What the fuck_? Anger started simmering deep in my chest. "I never lied to you," I ground out as I pushed away from the table and sent the beer bottle skittering across the floor.

"You did nothing but lie to me!" She stood up, and advanced on me until we stood chest to chest. "And you were always leaving me alone so you could visit your _putas!"_

"For Christ's sake," I muttered. "You knew my life and business were in Trenton. If we didn't spend enough time together, it was because you couldn't be bothered to fucking move in with me."

"It's a good thing I didn't give up my life for you," she spat out. "I deserved better than a man who couldn't keep it in his pants."

"I. Never. Cheated. On. You," I snarled. Yes, I'd had a rep as a player, but I hadn't even looked at another woman after we met up for the third time. And it'd taken me and little Les an embarrassingly long time to get back in the saddle, dating wise, after the divorce. "But maybe if I'd known I was gonna be punished anyway, I would've actually done the crime."

I felt the slap practically down to my toes and I would've bet that the sound carried all the way to Ric and Steph's suite. We stood there glaring at each other for several long seconds, and just before I was about to stomp toward the shower, she burst into tears.

"Jesus, don't do that," I sighed as I awkwardly drew her into my arms. "How do you do that – make me so mad I can't see straight and then break me down?" I never could handle it when she cried. I dropped a kiss onto her forehead and wondered if maybe Beautiful hadn't had the right idea, after all. "Maybe we do need to talk about what just happened here." She reared back and I was struck by just how beautiful she looked, with tears shining in her beautiful honey-colored eyes. "Uh… we can talk when you're ready. How about some of that ice cream Steph…."

I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence before she grabbed my face in her hands and hauled me down to her. Her lips were salty with her tears, but her mouth tasted like five kinds of sin.

"Les?" Her lips hovered barely an inch from mine when the kiss finally ended.

"Hmm?" All of my higher order brain functions were occupied with figuring out if I could steal another kiss, so I wasn't up for talking, much.

"Screw talking and take me to bed."

As I fitted my mouth to hers, I could only think that that was the best idea I'd heard all day.

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><p>AN: Thanks for the reviews and comments. I think one, maybe two chapters will wrap this up.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Here is the conclusion of Les and Mari's story. Thanks to everyone who has followed along on this little story. Wishing everyone and very happy holiday season and New Year!

AN2: _Italics_ = conversations in Spanish

**Disclaimer: The characters and their world belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm just playing with them for fun and all mistakes are my own.**

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><p><em>Previously:<em>

_"__Les?" Her lips hovered barely an inch from mine when the kiss finally ended. _

_"__Hmm?" All of my higher order brain functions were occupied with figuring out if I could steal another kiss, so I wasn't up for talking, much._

_"__Screw talking and take me to bed."_

_As I fitted my mouth to hers, I could only think that that was the best idea I'd heard all day._

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

You know what they say: the fourth time's the charm

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><p>Lester's POV<p>

The first round was frantic. I'd barely gotten Mari naked and in bed before I was coming with a roar as her nails and teeth bit into my skin. The second round was just as urgent and left me shaking and drained – at least until Mari began kissing her way down my torso. I swear her mouth could wake the dead.

The third time, we made love. If this was the last night we'd ever have together, I was going to fill my senses with her. For long, frozen moments my whole world was narrowed down to silken feel of her skin sliding against mine, the hitch in her breathing as I moved inside of her, the honeysuckle and vanilla scent of her shampoo, the sweet taste of her nipple against my tongue, and the way her eyes went pitch black with pleasure as she came in rippling waves around my cock.

I finally collapsed in a shuddering heap on top of her. A gentleman never crushes his woman, so I used the last of my strength to flop over onto my back, pulling Mari with me so that she lay half on top of me.

"_Dios,_ woman," I gasped out when I'd finally regained the power of speech. "What are you doing to me?" Little Les should've been down for the count after that last round, but he was already letting me know he was ready and willing for further service.

Mari cracked open one eye and smacked me on the shoulder. "Don't even think about it," she mumbled. "I need fuel and about twelve hours of sleep before any more funny business, Mister."

I sketched a half-hearted salute. "Yes Ma'am."

"Besides, aren't we out of condoms, yet?" She asked on a yawn.

I craned my neck toward the bedside table. "Nope, the guys left us a whole twelve pack." And I was taking it as a personal challenge to use every single one, if she'd let me.

It was maybe a half hour later, when she was sitting cradled between my legs as she dug into the pint of ice cream Steph had left for us, that I finally got the guts to ask the question that had been plaguing me all afternoon.

"Why did you think I'd cheated on you?"

She turned in my arms so fast I almost got clocked with her spoon. "You're actually denying it?"

"I'm saying that I want to hear your side of things." I sighed. "All I know is that we went to bed one night and I woke up to you telling me to leave." And setting my duffle bag on fire on the lawn of the small house we'd rented just outside of town.

"And you left, just like that, without a fight," she accused.

"I was supposed to fight to stay?" I asked, my eyes widening with surprise. She'd told me to leave, but I wasn't supposed to? Why didn't women come with an instruction manual?

"God, you men are so dumb."

Hunh, and I thought I was respecting her decision by not contesting the divorce. "Look, if I acknowledge that I was wrong to not ask what went wrong, will you try to explain it to me?" I smiled crookedly. "I really am clueless."

She sighed and put the ice cream aside. "And I shouldn't have just shut you out like that," she admitted, grudgingly. She scooted out of my arms and slid over until we both sat side-by-side, propped against the headboard.

"I guess I never trusted that someone like you would be happy with someone like me."

Someone like me? "I never looked at another woman while we were together!"

She snorted. "You were a legend, and you knew it! Remember the time I visited you and that Ram guy wouldn't stop talking about your little black book?"

She'd only visited Trenton once, while we were still dating, and I did remember that Ram and the guys had been most appreciative of inheriting my phone's contact list before I'd purged it.

"It wasn't like that," I grumbled. When she just glared at me, I sighed. "Yeah, I had more than my share of women when I was single, but I don't know how to say it any more clearly – I only thought of you or wanted you after we met up that last time." That I had to specify which of our marriages I'd meant was just a testament to how screwed up our relationship was.

"I saw texts," she muttered, her cheeks flaming bright red at having to admit that she'd snooped through my phone.

I shrugged. Since Hec and Ric had done an extremely thorough background check on her, I couldn't really point fingers. "If you did, I bet they were one-sided."

She nodded. "The couple I saw, you said you weren't interested, which surprised the heck out of me." She snorted with laughter. "I don't even swing that way and I would've had trouble saying no to some of those offers."

She sighed. "If it was just that I could overlook it, but I heard you moaning some _puta's_ name in your sleep that night. Does Maria ring a bell?"

"What?" I asked in confusion. I prided myself on never forgetting the names of even the most casual of hook ups, and there hadn't ever been a Maria. But then I thought back to the last couple of months of our marriage and groaned when it hit me. "Fuck."

I had to grab her fast as she started to roll off of the bed. "I messed up, but not the way you think."

She was rigid in my arms, but didn't move away. "I can't wait to hear this," she said sarcastically.

I sighed. "There's an orphanage in Colombia called Santa Maria. I spent some time around there just before we divorced."

"You were in Colombia," she repeated, her voice flat.

"Yes." I sighed. I'd been so sure I was protecting her by not telling her about my trips into the wind. But after watching everything Ric and Steph had gone through over the last few years, I knew now that probably wasn't the wisest call I could've made. "I was on a mission."

"But you left the army years ago!"

"Yes, but I still had a contract where I was on-call for certain instances." Like when a minor drug lord I thought we'd already sent to Hell popped back up and decided to take cover in a girl's orphanage while I was tracking him down.

"And one of these missions was in Colombia."

I knew she wanted to say more, so I decided to tell her what I could. "I was sent to track down a person of interest." When she just frowned, I sighed. "We'd both get jail time if I gave details, but trust me, he was one of the bad guys."

"And this Santa Maria orphanage was involved?"

"He holed up there, and things went badly." I closed my eyes and said a brief, silent prayer for the souls of the little girl and nun that were killed that day. "People died." And I still had nightmares about it, sometimes. I told her as much.

She was quiet for several long moments before her arms stole around me and she hugged me to her, tight and hard. "It wasn't your fault." She whispered. When I started to protest, she shushed me. "I'll probably be mad as hell at you in a few minutes, but not because of what happened on that mission."

She reared back slightly so that she could look me in the eye. "You acted on orders, and everything you just said me tells me that the only one to blame was the bastard you were sent to find."

Months of therapy had led me to accept that what had happened in Colombia was unavoidable, but knowing that Mari didn't blame me had me releasing a breath I hadn't even known I was holding. We sat there, against the headboard for several long minutes and I just let myself enjoy being wrapped in her arms again. But I had a feeling the peace was going to be short-lived when she finally sighed and released me.

"So when you disappeared for almost a month, you were on some top-secret government mission? One that you couldn't even hint about to your wife?"

"I told you I was going out of town!" I immediately regretted opening my mouth when she reared back, as if I'd just slapped her.

"You sent a two line email telling me you were leaving on a business trip." Her eyes narrowed. "You weren't answering your phone, and all Tank or Bobby would tell me was that you were 'off-line' and would call me when you got back. In my world, off-line means 'I'm visiting my other girlfriend.'"

"OK, I can see how that looked bad." I squirmed slightly under her scrutiny. Mari's glare was twice as deadly as Steph's or my mother's. "Maybe I should've told you that I still ran missions."

"Maybe," she said, her voice saccharine sweet. "Though I can't see why. I was only your wife, Les!" Her eyes filled with tears. "I mean, surely the fact that you were out there risking your life wasn't anything I needed to know about," she hissed. "I was so mad that you'd left me alone when the shit hit the fan, and now you tell me you could've died in some jungle?"

"I screwed up," I crooned as I sat up in bed and pulled her onto my lap. _Dios. _Her anger I could handle, but her tears… She just cried harder and fought me at first, but I held on tight and whispered a stream of nonsense into her ear until she finally begin to calm.

"You're right. You deserved to know the whole truth about my life." I swallowed around the lump in my throat. "I screwed up and I'm so sorry, baby." I'd thought she'd go ballistic if she'd known I still had a year left on my contract when we got married, but maybe we could've avoided all of this heartache if I'd just come clean. Well, as clean as Uncle Sam would've allowed me.

But then her last words finally sunk in. "What did you mean, the shit hit the fan?"

"You caught that?" She hiccupped and was silent for several minutes, as if she was gathering her thoughts. "I'd just taken a pregnancy test the morning I got your email."

"You were pregnant? You had my baby?" I shook my head as a mixture of dread and disbelief flooded through me. I'd left her pregnant and alone, and she hadn't told me?

"I wasn't pregnant long," she whispered. "I had a miscarriage a couple of days before you returned."

"Oh, fuck," I swore. "And instead of calling first, I just showed up and slipped into our bed in the middle of the night." I'd thought she was nuts for just kicking me out without a word, but I couldn't blame her. I'd abandoned her without a word while she was going through one of the worst experiences a woman could go through, and then apparently babbled another woman's name in my sleep. Sure, we both knew the truth now, that there was no woman, but that didn't make me any less of a bastard.

"I'm so sorry," I repeated. "I should've been there to support you. You're… OK, now?" It was a little late to ask, but I had to know. When she nodded against my chest, I carefully lifted her off of my lap and swung my legs over the side of the bed.

I rested my head in my hands and took a deep, shuddering breath. Intellectually, I knew that it had happened a long time ago, but I felt the loss of our child and it was like a fresh stab wound to the gut. "We probably still have a shit load to talk about, but I won't keep you here to do it." I stood and passed Mari her clothing to before grabbing my own. "I'll go see about getting us out of here."

"Wait." Her hand on me was far gentler than I deserved. "You mean we aren't really locked in here?"

I shrugged. "We are, but Hector has just been waiting for the word from me." Sure, Ric had said we were stuck here, but none of them would ignore us if I signaled we were in trouble or if I gave the 'all clear.'

She shook her head. "_Loco." _When I turned back toward the door, she stopped me again. "What if I don't want to leave?"

"Yeah?" A thin thread of hope began to unfurl in my chest. I didn't see how she could ever forgive me, or that we could work things out, but my _abuela _always said that miracles were real.

"Yeah. You should've been honest with me, but I screwed up too." She sighed and started to pull me back toward the bed. "I should've had the guts to confront you, and I should've never kept my pregnancy from you."

I sat on the edge of the bed, but kept my pants firmly on. "You were hurting."

"Yeah." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "But so were you, right?" When I nodded, she tugged on my hand until I was fully reclined beside her. "Tell me the truth, Les. Are you still running missions?"

"No." I'd made the mistake of keeping things from her before, but I promised myself then and there that I never would again. "That was my last mission. I still do bond enforcement, sometimes, but my job is pretty safe these days. _Lo juro." _I'd become a freaking paper pusher if it meant I got her back.

"I don't want you to change, I just want you to be honest with me," she said, surprising me. Either I'd picked up Steph's habit of talking out loud, or Mari had suddenly developed ESP. "Are _you_ OK now?"

I nodded. "I can even get you a doctor's note, if you like," I joked. I'd pretty much crawled into the bottom of a bottle after she'd thrown me out. And it'd gotten even worse when I'd been served with the divorce papers. I'd probably still be laid out drunk somewhere if Ric and Bobby hadn't detoxed my sorry ass and then dragged me to see the shrink RangeMan kept on retainer.

Her eyes closed briefly, as if in pain. "I think we have a whole lot to talk about, tonight."

And that's what we did. As strange as it sounds, I finally met my ex-wife that night. We'd known each other most of our adult lives, been married and divorced three times, but we'd never really opened up to each other before. It was hard, but I let her see beneath my carefully crafted façade. Well, I _am_ devilishly handsome and insanely good in bed, but I let her see the little boy that cried when his dog died, the scrawny kid that followed his older cousin into the Army, and the guy that would rather watch old musicals than go out clubbing.

I finally really met Mariela Sanchez, and she was beautiful. She was still as sexy and smart-mouthed as ever, but what really made her beautiful to me were her hidden fears and her hopes and dreams. And all it took was my asshole friends locking us in a room together. I'd never tell them that, though.

And when we'd run out of words for the moment, I showed her how I felt. And she gave every ounce of feeling right back to me. Afterward, when our bodies were cooling, and we were wrapped around each other in the too-soft hotel bed, I came to a decision.

"I don't want this to end when Hector finally gets around to letting us out," I whispered as

I held her close in the pre-dawn gloom. "I'd like us to try again."

Mari yawned, sleepily. "You want to get married, again? The courthouse is closed, Les."

"No!" And then I realized how that probably sounded. "Don't get me wrong, marriage is definitely a goal, but I have a crazy idea." Well, it was crazy for us. "Let's do it right this time and try dating first."

"We did that last time."

"I'd like to really date this time," I insisted. As exciting as the weekend visits were, I wanted something solid, something real. "You know, as in we actually try living in the same town. We could bother each other at work, go grocery shopping together, even try sleeping in the same bed without having sex first, sometimes."

"Wow. That sounds really… normal."

When she didn't say anything else, I continued. "I can move here," I told her. "Trenton winters suck, and it's definitely not the place to pursue my life-long dream of being an Elvis impersonator," I joked. I'd miss the crew at RangeMan, but I couldn't help but remember how many arguments we'd had over who was going to move last time. We'd both been so determined to get our own way that we'd both lost out.

She chuckled. "As long as you don't try to become fat Elvis, that'd be OK."

I rolled my eyes. "I would totally rock the jumpsuit." But that was beside the point. "I know we still have a lot to work out, but the thing is, I've always loved you, Mari. I'd like another chance."

She was quiet for so long, I started to dread her answer.

"I'd like that too," she finally said, her voice suspiciously thick. "I didn't stop loving you, either, even when I wanted to hate you." She turned in my arms, so that we were eye to eye. "Yes to the dating, but I expect sex every night, Mister."

I chuckled then, as a weight I hadn't even been aware of lifted off of my chest. "Yes, Ma'am. But you have to tell Ric I'm quitting."

"Me? Do you know how scary your cousin is?" She pursed her lips, thoughtfully. "MGM has casinos back East. Atlantic city is what… an hour or two away from you?"

"There are lots of casinos in Jersey, and any of them would be lucky to have you in security," I agreed. "But did I mention that the winters suck?"

She chuckled, and kissed me softly on the lips. "We'll figure it out in the morning. You've almost killed me, Santos, and I need sleep."

As we drifted off, I felt something I hadn't in a long time. Hope.

L&M~L&M~L&M

I woke, way too early, to the distinctive thump of my Glock and our cell phones as they landed beside me on the bed.

Hector snickered when I blindly flipped him off. "_Hey, get up, asshole, Estephania's ordering breakfast."_

I raised my head and squinted at the bedside clock. "_Some of us actually got lucky last night. It's 0700," _I snarled as I pulled the covers up and over Mari's sleeping body. We'd really have to work on her situational awareness. Though on second thought, I hadn't heard Hec come in either. "_I didn't give you the all clear, yet."_

Hector just smirked and nodded toward the bedside lamp. "_You did, all night long, Santos."_

I swallowed a curse, as I realized that I really hadn't gotten all of the bugs. "_I want every copy you have of those recordings," _I said, letting my voice go cold and deadly. A little good natured ribbing between friends was one thing, but gay or not, no one got to see my woman like that, except me.

Hector nodded sharply and left without another word, so I flipped over and started to kiss Mari awake. Yeah, we'd barely gotten a couple of hours of sleep, but little Les was letting me know that it was never too early for morning nookie.

Unfortunately Mari wasn't on board with the plan, once she'd realized that my friends were most likely listening at the door. So, against my better judgment, we showered separately and joined my favorite assholes. Steph proved why she was my second favorite lady by having the coffee and pancakes standing by.

"_Did you have to take so long to work things out?"_ Ranger muttered under his breath as we sat down. "_Babe and I should be in Hawaii, by now."_

_"__And did you have to spring us so early? I still have a couple of condoms left, asshole," _I whispered as I grabbed the syrup from its place at his elbow. It wasn't like he was actually going to eat a pancake or any of the delicious bacon Beautiful had ordered. When Ric just flipped me off, I snickered. "Honeymoon not going the way you wanted, _primo?"_

"Les!" Steph's face was flaming bright red. "That's none of your business!"

"And mine and Mari's lives weren't yours," I told her, as I pinned each of them with a glare. Hec and Steph actually had the grace to look a little shamefaced, but my cousin just smirked.

I was all set to keep on ribbing Beautiful, but Mari had other ideas.

She reached over and squeezed Steph's hand. "I still think you're all crazy, but I'm glad you cared enough to interfere." And then she proved once again why she was the perfect woman for me when she grabbed the strawberries and whipped cream off of the table.

"Just don't ever do it again," she said as she disappeared into the bedroom.

"What she said," I told them as I liberated both of our plates from the table. I had a feeling we'd need the fuel at some point. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat but…."

"Santos!" She bellowed from the other room. "Get your ass in here!"

"The boss has spoken." I sketched a jaunty wave at Steph as I headed toward the other room. "Bring me back some Kona and a Hawaiian shirt, willya?"

Epilogue:

One year later

I stepped out into the main terminal of the Las Vegas McCarran airport and stopped to get my bearings. Maybe I was momentarily distracted by the group of Shriners that had just hit the jackpot ten feet to my right, but it took me several seconds to realize that the loud ringing I was hearing was my phone and not the slot machines that lined the concourse.

I checked the display and smiled as I hit accept. "_Hola, querida."_

"Hello, handsome," Mari purred back. "A little birdie told me you took an earlier flight."

"Well, I knew my fiancé would kick my ass if I were late for my own wedding."

"Maybe," she told me. "But I would've definitely kicked Ric's ass if that'd happened. Who throws bachelor parties in Jersey?"

I slanted a look toward my travel companions. "What can I say – he was dropped on his head a lot as a baby." And Tank had threatened major mat time if half of the Trenton crew had flown to Vegas like they'd originally planned. Ric flipped me off and Steph just giggled.

A SUV was waiting for us by the time we made it out of the terminal. Not so long ago, I would've piled in next to Steph just to piss off Ric, but I let the lovebirds have the backseat. After a year of domestic bliss with my woman, I was a changed man. For example – there hadn't been a single stripper at the bachelor party Ric and Hector had thrown for me. Instead, we'd started the evening with a takedown on Stark and ended it with poker and a couple of boxes of newly legal Cubans.

The biggest change was with me and Mari. We'd both had plenty vacation time to burn, so we'd spent the two weeks after Hec had sprung us… reconnecting. And not just between the sheets. By the time Ric and Steph had stopped by on their way back from the honeymoon, we'd worked out most of the relationship details we hadn't bothered with the first three times. We'd live in Vegas for the time being, alternate holidays with our families, and we knew we wanted at least two kids – in a couple of years.

My career as an Elvis impersonator was put on indefinite hold when Ric refused to accept my resignation. It turned out that Vegas was a prime candidate for its own RangeMan branch, and I was just the man to bring it online. The branch had been up and running for seven months now and we were already in the black.

So, yeah, life was pretty good. I had a job that didn't bore me to tears and a woman I couldn't wait to come home to every night. Not that'd it'd been as easy as that, but Woody and Zero had transferred out with me and Brown had dug up the name of a couples' counselor for us.

Zero drives like a maniac, so we made it to the Bellagio with probably too much time to spare. At least that was my main thought when I was counting down the minutes to the wedding a couple of hours later.

"Quit that!" Steph slapped my hands away from my tie and readjusted it. "If you don't stop fidgeting, I'm going to have Carlos come in here and make you!"

"Him and what Army?" When Steph just rolled her eyes, I flopped down on the couch in their suite. "Sorry, just wish I could see her already."

"She's going to knock your socks off." Steph gave a last tug at my collar and stood back to admire her work. "You clean up pretty well yourself, Santos."

I chuckled. "I never thought we'd get here, you know? _Mi primo _an old married man, and me finally taking the plunge."

Steph cocked her head to one side. "This isn't your first rodeo, Les."

"It is," I corrected her gently. "The other three times were…" I couldn't put it in words, but this time felt real. "You know, I never did thank you for what you did," I told her, changing the subject.

"You mean kidnapping you and Mari?" Her lips quirked into a half smile. "I took one look at you two in the hallway that night and knew she was the one who got away."

"The Hell?" I asked, offended. My blank face was better than even Ric's. I told her as much.

Steph snorted. "As if. How many monitor shifts did we spend together, Les? Way too many," she answered for me. "And you were never shy about giving me the stats and duration of every hook up you'd had since junior high. You've had more one night stands than Joe Morelli!" When I went bright red, she just patted me on the hand. "But you never mentioned Mari, not once. That's how I knew."

"Yeah." I couldn't deny it, so I stood and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "So thanks for being willing to commit several felonies for my own good."

She snickered. "Anytime." Her phone beeped and she glanced down at the display. "Everything's set downstairs. Though Carlos wants me to tell you that there's a SUV waiting outside if you change your mind," she joked.

I just shook my head. "Not a chance. The fourth time's the charm."

And that's the story of how I married the Mariela Sanchez for the fourth and last time. We had the ceremony for old time's sake at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas on the one year anniversary of our reunion, and Steph and Ric stood up for me. The fountain played 'At Last' as the minister pronounced us man and wife, while our friends and family looked on via Skype. And because I know better than to deny the women in my life, there were two cakes.

The End.


End file.
